How Gaming Addiction Affects the Mental Health of Teenagers

In the words of Dr. S.M. Grüsser, R. Thalemann in a journal article named Excessive Computer Game Playing: Evidence for Addiction and Aggression? “Computer games have become an ever-increasing part of many adolescents' day-to-day lives. Coupled with this phenomenon, reports of excessive gaming (computer game playing) denominated as "computer/video game addiction" have been discussed in the popular press as well as in recent scientific research”. Gaming addiction in our time today has been one of the most devastating addiction of teenagers. This is prevalent in our society today because of the modern day mobile cellphones, computers and consoles. Through the modernization of our world, many of these teens have easy access to video games. Most of them even play inside their respective schools.

As their lives get swallowed up by gaming addiction, many of these teens often show symptoms of aggression, depression, violence and many more. According to Daria Joanna Kuss and Mark D. Griffiths on journal article entitled Internet Gaming Addiction: A Systematic Review of Empirical Research, “Research suggests that a minority of Internet game players experience symptoms traditionally associated with substance-related addictions, including mood modification, tolerance and salience”. As said in the article, gaming addiction not only result to aggression and violence, but also to substance abuse, self-harm and loneliness. Playing video games keeps the teenagers indoors and only able to have contact with their games. Most of them loose social skills because they mostly play by themselves and not being able to have contact to the real world. Doesn’t it sound ironic? Playing video games means that you should have a virtual connection to the game but sadly you also loose connection to the real world.

Our advocacy which is to lessen the amount of gaming addiction among teenagers, aims to save other people’s lives from being addicted to video games. We hope that through this, we are able to make a difference in the world. 314 Internet Gaming Addiction: A Systematic Review of Empirical Research Daria Kuss-Mark Griffiths - International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction – 2011 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11469-011-9318-5 Excessive Computer Game Playing: Evidence for Addiction and Aggression? S.m. Grüsser-R. Thalemann-M.d. Griffiths - CyberPsychology & Behavior – 2007 https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2006.9956